Well, first of all, let me welcome you to the Cosmic Citizenship Alliance blog! Our first post, God and Cosmos, is intended to set the stage for an expansive, never-ending journey of personal, species, ecological and cosmic awareness. It is our intention to give voice to this existing Cosmic Consciousness, to the large modern citizenship/community in search of it, to provide a lightning rod, for us all to coalesce around, to give our friends and family something to point at and say :

"Look. Here. This is what I'm talking about. It's 'yes and' to all. It's an attitude, not a belief system. It's an un-Church, a library of expansive ontology, scientific exploration and consciousness. It's a deep honesty regarding the untapped potential within and without."

So let's get into it. Let's talk about God and Cosmos. The human understanding of God is for the most part limited to our atmosphere. The world's major religions and the mystic union experiences of our saints happened here, in this tiny film separating the hot rock we call home from a vast and wondrous cosmic neighborhood. Within this film, we have generally two camps of God theory, one camp was formed in the jungle and the other in the desert. The jungle religions of South America, India and Africa are reflections of jungle experiences and economics. Nature is giving, abundant, and Gods tend towards non-dual, non-action, just the simple marination within the abundance of Nature. The jungle gods tend to be feminine, where female gathering (as opposed to the more physical and masculine hunting) represent the bulk of the daily calories and economics.

The desert religions on the other hand are reflections of desert and semi-arid experiences and economics. Nature is harsh, cruel, and Gods tend towards the dualism and individualism required for survival. The desert gods tend to be masculine and abstract, where hunting, farming and pillaging (as opposed to the more passive gathering and foraging) represent the bulk of the daily calories and economics. The desert economies relied more on trade, exploration, cunning, invention and ingenuity as there was an ever-present caloric scarcity.

For the most part, the explorations into consciousness and being were done in the jungle and the explorations into science, learning, economics and exploration/conquest emerged in the desert. The desert culture eventually birthed a second and abstract God, knowledge, where science became an object of worship, giving rise to modern agriculture and the caloric surpluses it created, enabling the whole class of service and creative professions. Reason became a God, attacking, improving and supplanting established belief systems, hierarchies, and economic models.

Enter the modern era, where urbanized humans continue to feel the spiritual impulse, and business exploits this longing for gain, selling goods and services that give lip service to connection and transcendence, while entrenching isolation and spiritual poverty, and pillaging and polluting our home, Planet Earth, along the way. Our economy is on a death march to rid the planet of non-human and eventually human life. Businesses sell us, mostly non-necessary idols (CPGs) to enrich the material holdings of the few at the expense of the many and unborn.

Moreover, the last 100 years of science has deepened our understanding of home, place, self and spirit. Psychology, paranormal psychology and neuroscience have illumined questions and capabilities within each of us that we previously regarded as other, in the domain of saints, mystics, poets and gypsies. Astronomy has illumined our cosmic story, how we got here and where we're going (death - self, species, Earth) as the Universe, as the current theory holds, will eventually contract upon another infinitesimally small and unimaginably hot point, perhaps giving rise to another Big Bang in the very distant future. Comparative religion has shown us that, once economically and physically secure, we are bound by a quest for meaning, connection, transcendence and transformation.

With all this in mind, and given our inability to prove the existence of a God, we orient ourselves within and without. We use the vast array of self-awareness tools (psychotherapy, meditation, yoga) to determine an accurate reading of our personal center, our Dharma, what we care about, what we love, what we feel connected to, and what we have to do in our 80 or so years on the cresting wave of cosmic evolution. We use the vast array of mechanical tools (telescopes, books, cameras) to bring into light the place in which we are to do it, Earth, our Solar System, the Milky Way Galaxy, the Universe. This dual awareness tethers us, forming a bridge. We are the span between our personal consciousness experience and the honest time (13.88B years since the Big Bang) and place of that experience.

So what is God in this context of consciousness and cosmos? You tell me. Seriously, you must know for yourself and share that with the world, so that we may know you and know ourselves on a deeper level and experience our corner of the cosmos more fully. We ache for it. We want it in your art, your speech, your craft, your presence, your revolution. Show us your cosmic God.